Lawmakers unlikely to tackle full marijuana legalization

Tuesday

Apr 7, 2015 at 5:45 PMApr 7, 2015 at 5:45 PM

By Gintautas DumciusState House News Service

BOSTON -- The legalization of recreational marijuana is likely headed to the 2016 ballot, with "no appetite" among state lawmakers to handle the issue first, according to Senate President Stanley Rosenberg.

"There's been conversations and there seems to be no appetite in the Legislature to take up ... recreational marijuana, so you should expect to see it on the ballot in 2016," Rosenberg (D-Amherst) said in an interview on the Boston Herald's internet radio station on Tuesday.

A group called "Bay State Repeal" is seeking to place a question on the ballot, which will requiring drafting language that must be first approved by the attorney general and gathering signatures from voters.

Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Attorney General Maura Healey and law enforcement officials have said they oppose full legalization. Rosenberg on Tuesday declined to state his position on full marijuana legalization.

Fifteen lawmakers have signed onto a legalization bill, sponsored by Rep. David Rogers and Sen. Patricia Jehlen, but Bay State Repeal has referred to the bill's tax on recreational cannabis as "excessive."

Rosenberg in January assigned Sen. Jason Lewis (D-Winchester) to head up a new Special Committee on Marijuana.

The committee is primarily geared towards gathering information on the topic in anticipation of the measure appearing on the 2016 ballot, and Lewis is expected to remain the sole member of the committee, according to a Senate spokesman.

Rosenberg told Herald Radio that he tapped Lewis, the Senate chair of the Public Health Committee, to research the subject in part to avoid the issues that have bedeviled the implementation of medical marijuana in Massachusetts.

According to a draft work plan provided to the News Service, Lewis will seek to complete his work by the end of 2015 and make recommendations to the Senate in early 2016. He will examine the risk of addiction and increased use by minors, the impact on the criminal justice system and the black market, tax policy, conflicts between state and federal law, and the effect on surrounding states.

With lawmakers reluctant to get involved in marijuana policy, Bay State voters approved a ballot question in 2008 that decriminalized possessing up to an ounce of marijuana and instituted civil penalties instead. Voters then legalized medical marijuana in 2012 after activists again circumvented the Legislature to pass a major law.

But the licensing of medical marijuana has drawn criticism from proponents who say patients are suffering while they wait for the implementation process to play out. Other critics have noted the state's vetting process missed inaccuracies in applications.

On the legalization of marijuana, Rosenberg said, "We should be more like the casino effort than the medical marijuana effort, 'cause we really understood what we were doing with the casinos."

Rosenberg was the lead lawmaker in the Senate when the Legislature approved an expanded gambling law in 2011 that allowed for the creation of up to three resort casinos and a slots parlor.

Rosenberg laid some of the blame on the medical marijuana ballot initiative, saying the law was "very awkwardly written," with conflicts and contradictions.

"It's not good that it's taken this long," Rosenberg told Herald Radio.